What is it about?
This paper reports on the findings of a project which involved using the students' self-generated photographs (selfies) as the springboard for a language fluency exercise. Drawing insights from visual approaches for methodology, the selfie-inspired activity generated surprising results such as the strengthening of personal relations and self-reflexivity amongst the students—aspects that are not often associated with the traditional use of visual ‘aids’.
Featured Image
Why is it important?
The effectiveness of the visual as a prompt to stimulate language production is widely acknowledged. However, little is known about how learners actually engage with and benefit from the use of images. Using the selfie as my 'visual', I show how it combines with the 'lingual' to inform language learning/teaching practices.
Perspectives
I hope that this study provokes us to question our own beliefs about the visual-lingual connection. It is high time that we recognized the limits of words and texts in expressing the full complexity of human communication. I also hope to have shown the benefits of drawing from other paradigms, in my case, the visual approaches, to enrich our understanding.
Mabel Victoria
Edinburgh Napier University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: The verbal and the visual in language learning and teaching: insights from the ‘Selfie Project’, Language Learning Journal, June 2018, Taylor & Francis,
DOI: 10.1080/09571736.2018.1484797.
You can read the full text:
Contributors
The following have contributed to this page
